Tata union polls

OUR CORRESPONDENT

The ball has been set rolling for the much-awaited biennial election of Tata Workers’ Union (TWU) with as many as 1,016 candidates filing nominations on Thursday.

The polls will be held on July 18 after a merger of the constituencies of workers’ and supervisors’ units in accordance with a Jharkhand High Court order. In all, there will be 214 constituencies (departments have been earmarked as constituencies).

Results will be declared on that day itself. Nomination forms were issued on Wednesday. Candidates include 995 men and 21 women.

The biennial polls of the Intuc-affiliated union of Tata Steel was earlier scheduled on May 21 but was postponed in view of the panchayat by-election. Additional deputy commissioner-cum-returning officer Ganesh Kumar said a final list of candidates would be published after scrutiny by next week. “Elections will take place through secret ballot,” he said.

Over 400 government officials will serve as volunteers. Another 200 will be deputed during counting of votes, which will take place on the day of the election itself.

The ruling faction, led by Raghunath Pandey as TWU president, will seek re-election for third consecutive term.

According to the constitution of the union, 214 elected committee members of the workers’ unit are entitled to select 11 office-bearers.